It's amazing how the work of other artists and books by artists for budding artists can inspire so much.
We visited the neighbouring town of St Neots yesterday. My intention was to do a bit of sketching in the town whilst my wife and eldest step-daughter went off to 'shop' ;).
I wandered into the local book shop and made the usual bee-line for the art book section. I came out with a wonderful little book called simply 'Sketching'. The book is about A7 size so it fits in my sketching pack (or even just a trouser pocket) and provides a nice portable reference for tips and inspiration, and Heaven knows I need some of the latter sometimes !
The reason I mention the 'Sketching' book is because the author recommends hard pastels, pastel pencils and Conte crayons as good sketching tools and so, since my collection of dry materials were looking a bit forlorn in the bottom of one of my art boxes, I decided to get them all out and give my watercolours a little rest. Here then, purely from imagination, are the fruits of my labour.